I worked in a hat factory as a summer HS/college break job. I stood at the end of a table and inspected the initial wool cut outs that would eventually be formed into the hats. The hats would go through a machine that sprayed them with god knows what chemicals, someone would capture them out of the machine and place them on the table, while the rest of us at the station would turn them inside out and hold them up to the light to look for flaws (thin spots).I would look at the clock every 45 minutes to see that only 10 minutes had passed.
I was one of the lucky ones though because every hour or so, I got to move to another station to hang newly-formed hats from another station on a drying rack that would take them to the next floor.
rudasn|3 years ago
I also did retail (at a department store) and door to door sales (children's books).
By far, the most soul crushing and difficult were the factory ones. 7.30am-3pm, Mon-Fri. If I wasn't at work I was either too tired to do anything, or sleeping having nightmares about the job.
However, the nicest, friendliest, and most helpful people I had ever worked with (incl. later in life as a software engineer), were the ones working at those factories. They had a unique mentality that really helped me see things differently.